Blogging
Web journaling or logging

Blogging is a form of web journaling, or web logging - hence it's name "blogging".  "Posts" to the blog are read by others, who then have the option to "post a comment". The author of the blog may choose to "moderate comments" in which the author decides which comments to post publicly.

In education, blogs are used in a variety of ways; posting assignments, communicating with parents, storing information, sharing expertise or for interactive lessons.  

Comment moderation is an important feature for educational blogs.  It gives the teacher the opportunity to manage what is posted on the blog site for others to view. In addition, users should be aware of acceptable use policies and web safety considerations when selecting a user id and making posts. 

_____________________________________________________________

Aligned to NETS-T: 1.b. 1.c. 1.d, 2.a, 3.a, 3.b, 3.c, 4.b, 4.c

_____________________________________________________________

Edublogs

Teachers may directly create their own sites for educational purposes.  Edublogs offers built in templates, designs, and widgets for video and podcasts.

To review the tutorials on Edublogs, click here. Also, review the recording 
from Melissa's session on how to create a Blog. 

_____________________________________________________________



 

21things Hands-On Activity and Assignment:

1.       Create an educational account on one of the sponsored blogging sites. 

2.       Create an educational blog that supports your position as an educator. In the setup, select the use of moderated comments.  Your blog may include: interactive learning, information source, educational expertise, communication with parents and/or students, classroom lessons, or other classroom applications.

3.       Make a minimum of three posts to the blog. 

4.  Share the blog address with at least two other educators; ask them to post comments to each of your three posts. 

5.      Access your blog and moderate the comments.

6.  Optional:  Make the blog visually appealing with graphics, video, charts or tables, or other useful information to support the blog. 

7. Capture a screen shot of your blog and include your reflections for your portfolio.  Please include the web address for your blog.

Additional Resources

There are a variety of blogging services available on the Internet.  The key to educational blogging is the use of moderated comments.  For the purposes of 21things, we are supporting EduBlogs.  After completing your assignment, you may wish to try other educational blogging sites:

21Classes (a division of 21Publish)

Live Journal

Class Blogmeister

50 Must Read Up and Coming Blogs by Teachers

21 Things for 21st Century Educators by CCRESA, IISD, MISD, SRESD is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.
Based on a work at 21things.weebly.com.
Permissions beyond the scope of this license may be available at http://21things.weebly.com/.